Idaho Power open house tonight in Boise makes case for plan

If you want to hear Idaho Power make the case for its 20-year plan for keeping the lights on, the machinery humming and the water pumping, you should go to its open house tonight at 7.

The meeting is at its headquarters, 1221 W. Idaho St. in Boise.

Senior Planning Analyst Tom Noll will present the utility’s proposed 2013 Integrated Resource Plan in the first in a series of meetings throughout the company’s service area. He will talk for an hour, then people can ask him or other Idaho Power officials questions.

The resource plan, filed with the Idaho Public Utilities Commission every two years, says Idaho Power can meet its demand for the next 20 years by building the 500-kilovolt transmission line from Boardman, Ore., to the Hemingway station near Melba and by using programs to manage demand during peak periods. It also would keep its existing hydro, coal and natural gas plants.

Rocky Barker is the energy and environment reporter for the Idaho Statesman and has been writing about the West since 1985. He is the author of Scorched Earth How the Fires of Yellowstone Changed America and co-producer of the movie Firestorm: Last Stand at Yellowstone, which was inspired by the book and broadcast on A&E Network. He also co-authored the Flyfisher's Guide to Idaho and the Wingshooter's Guide to Idaho with Ken Retallic. He also was on the Statesman’s team that covered the Sen. Larry Craig sex scandal, which was one of three Pulitzer Prize finalists in breaking news in 2007. The National Wildlife Federation awarded him its Conservation Achievement Award.